Tap water contaminant ‘castrates’ frogs
Related: castrates, contaminant, frogs, gender, health, Tap water
An herbicide that contaminates the tap water consumed by millions of Americans is no surprise, but it has been found to produce gender-altering effects in male frogs. It has been found that it is “chemically castrating” some and turning others into females.
Frogs in the experiment were exposed to amounts of the weedkiller atrazine that are comparable to the levels allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to lead researcher Tyrone Hayes of the University of California-Berkeley.
In Hayes’ earlier studies, atrazine caused male frogs to begin growing eggs in their testes. But in this experiment, 10% of the males exposed to atrazine changed their sex; some were able to breed and lay eggs. Almost all of the other males had low testosterone and sperm levels, which made them unable to reproduce.
The fear is that it could affect humans in similar ways, though that has not been shown yet.
Last Updated on March 4th, 2010
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